An ER doctor complains about pricing for iPad publications. When you add Apple’s assumption that it’s entitled to a premium for its hardware to the publishers’ assumption that because it’s new, it should cost more than paper, you have some significant pricing escalation. It even bothers a doctor.

Excerpts:

[T]he statistics of an initial peak of electronic magazine sales on the ipad, then recent decrease, is not surprising. This is because early adopters wanted to see really cool content on their really cool device. And they were willing to pay for it. At least initially.

However, it is insane to pay more for an electronic document than the written version.

. . . .

My concern is that newspaper/magazine publishers will see the lower sales and say that the model of electronic media has failed. It hasn’t. THEIR model is what is failing: which is to say, the model whereby you gouge the early adopters and then drop the price when it becomes clear nobody will buy your product, and then drop the format when it “fails.”

. . . .

For book publishers, it is a similar idea. If you are going to charge me $20 for an electronic book, I want added value. I want video interviews of the author. I want interpretations by critics. I want photos of the setting (a la Dan Brown “extra content” books).

. . . .

If you won’t give me added value, then I want a lower cost. And I mean REALLY lower. I think no electronic book that is merely a pdf of the print copy is worth more than $4.00 a copy.